You would think that my admitting once that I was wrong about an
\nalbum would be enough for our readers – but
\nnoooo<\/i>, they like me admitting I’ve made an ass of
\nmyself.<\/p>\n
Today’s teacher: Ben McCormick, who not only called me to task
\nfor mixing up two songs in my review of
\nRevolver<\/i>, but asked me to review one of Neil Young’s classic
\nalbums,
\nTonight’s The Night<\/i>. I cringed – the one time I listened to
\nthis one, I absolutely hated it.<\/p>\n
But, I told people I’d take suggestions, so… off to the Pierce
\nMemorial Archives (Cripes, I can’t think of a stupid line for the
\nArchives) to dig it out and give it a fair review.<\/p>\n
Hoo, boy, was I wrong – I gotta remember to lay off the Schlitz
\nbefore I listen to an album for the first time. An album fueled by
\nthe drug-related deaths of Crazy Horse musician Danny Whitten and
\nroadie Bruce Berry, Young was pissed off, and was going to let
\neveryone know that he felt that way. In retrospect, he made one
\nincredible album.<\/p>\n
Best known for its title track, Young tells the story of Berry,
\nas if to remind people he was a human being and friend first, a
\ndrug casualty a distant second. There are two versions of the song
\non this album; the first version is more acoustic oriented, and is
\nmore haunting. The electric version that closes the album is
\ndecent, but not as powerful in my eyes.<\/p>\n
The most poignant moment on
\nTonight’s The Night<\/i> is “Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown,” a
\nsong which features the vocal talents of Whitten. To hear his
\nperformance makes me want to cry – this is one amazing performance
\nthat makes the circumstances surrounding his death even more
\ntragic.<\/p>\n
Young carries the emotion through on the song “Borrowed Time,”
\nwhich sounds like he’s singing it from the perspective of one of
\nhis fallen comrades. A “borrowed song” from the Rolling Stones,
\nbecause he’s “too wasted” to write or finish his own (though I
\nhighly doubt this is autobiographical), the words match the sparse
\nmelody to a “T.”<\/p>\n
Yet another famous song from the album is “Roll Another Number”
\n– and believe it or not, I have no frigging idea what Young is
\nreferring to (he uses the line again in “Albuquerque”) – and I
\nwelcome readers to educate me. The song seems to take on a
\ncountry-drunk song one would sing at closing time at the local
\nwatering hole, and is a stitch. (I admit I personally prefer the
\nversion done by The Beat Farmers – Country Dick Montana, we miss
\nyou.)<\/p>\n
\nTonight’s The Night<\/i>, like many of Young’s albums, tends to
\nwalk the line between all-out rock and the twang of country – and
\nYoung manages to get the mixture just right on this album.<\/p>\n
I’m starting to get tired of pulling my foot from my mouth to
\nadmit I was wrong in my first judgment of an album (either that, or
\nI’ve got to get a flavored foot). But, I do have to admit that I
\nwas completely wrong in my first opinion of
\nTonight’s The Night<\/i> – upon further review, this is probably
\none of, if not the, best of Neil Young’s career. (Now can I ask my
\nreaders to recommend albums I know I like?)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5692],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-35568","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-neil-young","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35568"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35568"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}